


My Brother

by DannyCalavera



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Author is a Veteran, Be gentle, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, British Military, Brotherhood, Deathworld, Earth is Space Australia, Earth is a Deathworld, Escape, Gen, Graphic Violence, Gun Violence, Hostage Situations, Humans, Humans Are Deathworlders, Humans Are Terrifying, Humans are space orcs, Humans vs. Aliens, Imprisonment, Military, Military Science Fiction, My First AO3 Post, Not Enough Tags, Outer Space, Self-Sacrifice, War, dark humour, humans are space australians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23216653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyCalavera/pseuds/DannyCalavera
Summary: My first post on AO3. Comments, suggestions, queries and complaints welcome.Humans and the D'Rek are at war.A reptilian race captures a D'rek and a Human and place them in the same cell together.Can they put aside their differences?Can they work together to survive?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 220
Collections: Humans Are Space Orcs





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A 'Rota' is, give or take, one day. As in one rotation of an M Class planet. Galactic standard is about 27 Hours in a day. seconds and hours are the same. A 'Cycle' is about 1 year.
> 
> D'Rek: Think classic grey alien....except slightly more built, about 7ft tall...and blue!
> 
> Sundaarians: Think Argonians from Elder Scrolls

_Security log:3349-01. Present: Chief security officer Lieutenant Xandris, Commander Landfall Battalion Marshal Naxin, Sub Lieutenant Laruz F Company Landfall Battalion. Interview subject: HOSTAGE DEBRIEF._

The small room was a standard interrogation room onboard the D’Rek ship. Bare white walls with a two-way mirror on one side and a small plain desk in the middle. one chair on one side of the desk, two chairs on the other with a datapad built into the desk surface. Laruz sat alone in the room, however, he was no prisoner. He had served on this ship before. Laruz flexed the two fingers and thumb on his left hand, his whole arm still ached from the reconstructive surgery he had undergone after his escape pod was recovered adrift in space. Catching his reflection in the mirror, Laruz noted that his blue skin was looking gaunter than was usual for his species. His large black eyes were slightly cloudy which meant he was very tired, but he didn’t need to see his eyes to know the exhaustion he felt.

Laruz was lost in remembrance as the door to the interview room slid open. Two familiar faces entered and sat opposite him at the small desk in the centre of the room.

“Greetings Sub Lieutenant, I trust you are rested and in good health?” Xandris asked, her head bowed in respect to her old friend.

“I ache and I still feel hunger, however my wounds have healed, and my strength is returning” Laruz replied returning the bow.

“You are acquainted with Marshal Naxin?” Xandris motioned to the senior officer sat next to her. “Battalion Commander, it is good to see you again” Laruz held his closed fist against his chest in salute.

“Your safe return pleases me, Sub Lieutenant” Marshal Naxin replied with a sharp salute.

Xandaris typed a command in to the data console on the desk and a small camera drone appeared from a hatch in the wall and hovered over the three aliens.

“Now Laruz, as you are aware this interview is purely to obtain an official record of the events surrounding your capture, imprisonment and subsequent escape from the Sundaari Empire” Xandris began, speaking slightly louder so the ambient sound recorders in the room can hear her clearly “Marshal Naxin is here as your senior commander and will be asking questions that might be beneficial to our intelligence services.”

“Understood” Laruz sighed, this will be a long interview.

“Shall we start by asking how you were captured?” Xandris began.

“I was being transferred to DS Nandoor to take up a new command when my shuttle was intercepted by a Sundaari frigate.” Laruz sighed staring at the cup of Graaz in front of him.

“After my shuttle touched down in the hanger bay of the Sundaari vessel it was swarmed by guards, they killed my pilot immediately and I calculated a 98% chance that resistance would result in my death, so I surrendered”

“A wise decision” Naxin interjected

“They took me to a holding cell where I was held for 36 rotas before we could escape”

“We?” asked Xandris confused.

“There was another prisoner brought in after 25 rotas who helped me escape…. a human”

Xandris and Naxin gasped, their blue skin turning green in shock.

“Our enemy? A human helped you to escape?” shouted Naxin incredulously.

“Yes, I had calculated a 25% chance of survival on my own if I obeyed the guards and didn’t resist the torture, a 0.003% chance of survival if I attempted to escape alone. None of my calculations or theorised scenarios accounted for a human in my cell let alone one that put himself in mortal danger to ensure my survival”

“We will hear more of this, please.” Naxin asked, leaning in closer.


	2. Chapter 2

Laruz opened his eyes at the sound of angry voices coming from the other side of the cell door, whatever was coming his way sounded large and upset. The door slid open and four Sundaari guards charged in with a cacophony of shouting. They were all occupied with something in the middle of the group, something that was thrashing and shouting louder than anything Laruz had heard before. What could possibly be so violent to cause four Sundaari reptilians to struggle to subdue it. Laruz’s question was answered as the reptiles threw the bloody creature into the corner of the cell next to him. Laruz recognised it as a human the instant it raised its head, it snarled at the Sundaari showing its predator teeth caked in blood. The human spat a bloody tooth at the guard closest to him, even though his translator chip was being scrambled Laruz didn’t need it to know that the Terran word the human screamed at them was the worst insult in the Terran language. The anxiety that Laruz felt at being a hostage to the Sundaari turned into cold fear when he knew he would be spending the rest of his captivity in a cell with an enemy, let alone a human.

After a few minutes of wiping the blood from his face the human began looking around the cell, his eyes fell on Laruz almost immediately. Laruz turned a pale grey when the human threw his head back and laughed out loud. He did not know any Terran but after laughing the human said apparently to himself something like “Ov Koorse!”

After a few galactic standard hours of silently waiting to see if the other would try and kill them and the guards would not return, the human lay down with his back to the far wall and settled down to sleep. Laruz glanced over and noted the military pattern flight suit he wore was torn in places and covered in at least three different types of mud, grime and blood. His cranial fur was brown and slicked back on top but shaved down to the skin on the sides. Laruz eyes fell on the emblem on the right sleeve that was hidden before. It turned Laruz’s fear into abject terror, gold wings with a silver dagger and the Terran words “Who Dares Wins”.

The D’Rek are aware of the Terran military unit know as the “SAS”. A relatively tiny unit but one that instils fear even in other humans. They are known to spend up to half a lunar cycle in the most inhospitable climates the human homeworld had to offer, certain death to any other sentient race in the galaxy, purely for training. Even the government with the largest military on the planet, as well as most of the governments around Earth sought training from these elite soldiers.

This was not just hubris and rumour, Laruz had read some of the reports from the first cycle of the war. A D’Rek outpost was brought to its knees by three SAS soldiers who were outnumbered ten to one. Five SAS soldiers wiped out a convoy of 150 D’Rek infantry in less than one hour. Laruk recalculated his chance of survival with his new cellmate…0.5%.

The human’s eyes flicked open as soon as Laruz heard the guard’s footsteps in the corridor outside. The cell door burst open and three large Sundaari piled in and picked the human up and dragged him out. _I wonder how humans hold up to torture?_ Laruz thought to himself, feeling more than a little glad that it wasn’t his turn this time. Nearly two hours had passed before the guards returned, he wasn’t kicking and struggling this time. The Sundaari threw him back into the corner from where they took him, he groaned in pain as his body hit the floor.

When the guards had left the human sat up against the back wall and began stretching his limbs and rubbing various muscles around his body. Laruz sat in silence not looking at his beaten and bloody cellmate _He is the enemy; He is not my concern_. The hours passed by without incident. The hyper intelligence of the D’Rek meant that maintaining an accurate internal clock was not difficult for Laruz, he knew exactly how long he had been in captivity down to the second.

The familiar yet dreaded sound of the guards echoed down the corridor once again. Laruz had noticed that they usually came to the cell once every 3-4 hours, unless the ship was on night routine then they only came twice in 10 hours just to ensure they didn’t sleep for long.

Laruz felt his twin stomachs drop as the guards came for him. The lead guard grabbed his wrist restraints and dragged him out of the cell. The Sundaari ensured that Laruz was dragged face down so he couldn’t see his surroundings and memorise the route. After a minute he was brought to a room that Laruz took to be an office of a Sundaari senior rank. There were five large reptilians in the room with him, as there usually is. Laruz was pushed into the centre of the room and surrounded. The guards who had dragged Laruz here untied his wrist restraints and punched him hard in the lower back. Laruz yelped in pain and fell to his knees. Before he could catch his breath, a thick boot flew at his face and connected to the space between his large black eyes. Laruz flew across the room, his vision had completely shut down. Blinded, he landed in a heap against the legs of another Sundaari and was immediately picked up and pushed back into the fray. For the next 2 hours Laruz’s world was darkness, misery and pain.

Laruz’s vision began to return as he was being dragged back to his cell. The door slid open and Laruz saw the human was sat up watching. _I must still be concussed but that look he is giving me…is that concern?_ Laruz thought as he lay on the floor. The room was still spinning when the guards left the cell. D’Rek physiology doesn’t handle trauma well and Laruz knew he would be immobile for at least 2 hours whilst his body recovers just the soft tissue damage. The way he was laying after the guards threw him in the cell was extremely uncomfortable, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Laruz’s skin flashed white in panic as he felt two hands grab his clothing, it could only be the human. _This is it_ Laruz thought _The human is going to kill me in my paralysis_. Instead the hands gently rolled him onto his back and then lifted him up until he was sat against the wall. Laruz could see the humans face clearly now, the look he gave was definitely one of concern. _Why is this human not trying to kill me? How is my wellbeing any concern of his?_ Laruz wondered. The human nodded to him gently and followed Laruz’s eyes with his. _What does he want?_ the human adjusted Laruz’s legs and looked back at him and nodded again, this time with a questioning look. Laruz nodded back now he was in a comfortable position. The human smiled but it was a gentle smile that didn’t display their predatory teeth, _Small mercies_ thought Laruz. The human crawled back to his side of the cell and before settling to sleep held out his fist with his thumb extended, the D’Rek recognised the gesture to mean “you’re okay!”.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been two rotas since that first display of peaceful intent by the human and Laruz was alone on the cell whilst his cellmate was away being beaten by the Sundaari. After a while the human was eventually dragged back in by the guards, it never ceased to amaze Laruz how the human could survive such physical punishment and still be conscious. Once the door slammed shut the human began to slowly reach for the pocket down by his knee in his flight suit. Laruz noticed the man was staring at him from the corner of his eyes, when the human saw Laruz watching him he did something that Laruz had never seen a human do before. _Did he just blink at me…with only one eye?_ Laruz felt confused, he had no idea what a one-eyed blink signified. At the same moment the human produced a Nivek Larvae from his pocket. “By the twin suns!” Laruz said aloud. The human was taken aback, so far Laruz had not spoken a word out loud since they were both in the same cell.

Not that the human could understand him, their translator chips were still being scrambled _Probably to stop prisoners conspiring_ Laruz had assumed.

The human smiled a big smile when he heard Laruz’s voice for the first time, a large grin that showed off a lot of teeth. Laruz’s skin turned grey, just for a moment, in a wave of anxiety. He would never get used to seeing an apex predator baring his teeth, even if he had not shown any hostility to him so far. The human split the Nivek Larvae in half and handed one piece to Laruz, what a gesture! His face blushed a deep gold in surprise and gratitude. The D’Rek had no natural predators on their homeworld, nor were they a predatory race so their diet was plant and insect based. Nivek Larvae were not indigenous to D’Rae but they were quite palatable to a D’Rek. Laruz knew that humans were omnivores and some Earth cultures still ingested insects as food. he also knew that whilst Nivek Larvae were not inedible to humans, they considered the taste to be quite foul. Laruz was therefore shocked to see the human put his entire half of the larvae in his mouth and begin to chew. After a few seconds of chewing and loud retching the human swallowed hard, breathing heavily and spitting on the cell floor he turned to Laruz and said with a smile “Pyoor Proteeeeen!”. The smile looked more unwell than menacing.

The standard rotations continued for some time with no change in routine. The human would return from his torture with one or two larvae if he could and share them with Laruz. He figured out that he could swipe them from the table without anyone noticing as he was thrown into it during his many violent beatings. Several small meals of larvae over a few rotas meant that both were getting more energy and the beatings were taking slightly less time to recover from. The guards must have realised that the expected carnage of placing two species at war with each other in the same cell never happened. In fact, the guards hadn’t noticed any interaction between the two at all. Then on the 36th rotation since Laruz’s capture something different happened.

The door to the cell slid open and four Sundaari entered, as usual. This time, two of the guards grabbed Laruz and the other two grabbed the human. They were both dragged together down a different route than before and when they were brought to their feet, they saw they were stood in the docking hanger. It looked like the entire crew that weren’t on essential duties were in the hanger with them. A large Sundaarian that Laruz recognised as the officer who oversaw his beatings stepped in front of them.

“We thought caging together two species at war would be entertaining, we’d hoped that you would save us the trouble of killing you ourselves” the Sundaarian roared.

Laruz could understand him perfectly _We are outside of the dampening field_ Laruz realised. His large black eyes gave him nearly 180-degree vision and the look on the human’s face told him that he too realised that their translator chips were working again.

“You are going to fight each other! Let’s see who is victorious between a D’Rek and a human!”

Laruz felt dread grip his spine

 _So, this is how I die?_ the words echoed through his head. The human had been kind to him in the cell but surrounded by Sundaari and forced into single combat, Laruz was certain the legendary human survival instinct would kick in and he would soon be dead.

The two combatants faced each other in a circle formed by the baying Sundaari. Laruz fixed the human with a stare, he didn’t even bother with a fighting stance, he was so certain the fight would be over before it began. The human raised his fists in front of him and looked directly at Laruz

 _There it is again! The one-eyed blink!_ Laruz saw that the human had slowly relaxed his fists, his palms were open.

The human paced forward straight for Laruz, his right arm flying towards his torso.

Laruz braced for a heavy blow but strangely felt a light push, not enough to hurt him but just enough to force him back a few paces.

Another violent swing aimed under his right arm but another firm push.

Swing, push.

Swing, push.

 _What is he doing?_ Laruz, despite his intelligence, just could not understand what the human was trying to achieve _Is he drawing this out so his victory over me is more impressive?_

The pair locked eyes, the human dropped his guard almost inviting Laruz to take the bait and hit him.

Laruz swung as hard as he could, his fist connected with the human’s jaw. Pain shot through Laruz’s hand all the way up his arm. Laruz turned away clutching his injured fist to his chest. He stood and waited for the retribution from the human, but it never came. He heard the Sundaari laughing and jeering. Turning around again Laruz saw the limp body of the human sprawled out on the floor, unconscious.

_I won? How?_


	4. Chapter 4

Heading back to the cell Laruz was spared the indignity of being dragged, probably due to his victory over the human. He was marched back between two guards whilst behind them two other guards held a wrist each and dragged the unconscious human behind them.

Once back in the cell Laruz sat back down on the floor, his wrists in restraints again.

The human was dragged in next and unceremoniously dropped on the floor, one guard stepped back to allow the other to place restraints on him. As the guard grabbed the human’s wrist his eyes snapped open. In one swift motion he peeled the reptilian hand off him, twisted and punched with his free hand straight into the creature’s elbow. The Sundaarian screamed as its arm separated into two. Dark green blood sprayed from the space where Its forearm used to be. The human rolled to his feet and swung the amputated limb as hard as he could against the side of its previous owner’s head. The guard collapsed to the ground and the human dropped with it as the second guard swung a heavy fist at his head. Sliding under the lethal punch the human pulled the large dagger from the fallen guard’s belt and sprang up pushing the blade through the chin of the second. With both Sundaari dead the human faced Laruz. Striding over to where the alien sat, Laruz imagined that this is the moment the human will take his vengeance for besting him in a fight. Instead the human knelt in front of him, unlocked his restraints with the guard’s key, span the dagger in his hand so the handle was facing the alien and silently offered it to him. Laruz couldn’t process what had just happened but he took the blade and watched as the human pointed at his own eyes with two fingers and then at the door. Laruz had studied human military tactics extensively during the war and understood battlefield hand signals. He took up position next to the door and kept watch as the human took the dagger from the second guard. Standing close behind his cellmate, the human reached up and gently squeezed Laruz on the shoulder and as one they moved through the door and out into the corridor.

The corridor was dark and only illuminated by one small green strip light. There were 5 other doors in the corridor. Laruz and the human knew from their regular movements to the torture room that the 4 other doors were other cells and the door at the end of the corridor to their left was the guardroom.

They moved together towards the guardroom door, this time the human was at the front as they stood against the door. Laruz copied what the human had done before and gently squeezed his shoulder when he was ready to go. The human slammed his hand against the door control and rushed in with an angry roar. Laruz was an arms distance away from him as they rushed the room, screaming with all the aggression he could muster. Over the human’s shoulder he saw a Sundaarian stood at the back of the room near some weapon lockers and one slowly getting up from their chair at a console to his right. The human was running straight for the guard at the back of the room so Laruz peeled right and rushed the guard at the console. They were both moving so fast that the guard only had time to open its mouth an inch before Laruz plunged the dagger into the back of its throat.

Laruz and the human stood motionless for a moment, catching their breath back and waiting to see if their attack had alerted more Sundaarians. When it appeared that no one else was coming, the human approached Laruz, his eyes looking up and down the dead Sundaarian slumped in the chair. “Good effort!” the human chuckled, his face beaming in a broad grin. Laruz was glad they were out of the dampening field and their translator chips were working again, Laruz had questions.

“Human, I would have questions with you”

“Jimmy.”

“Excuse me?”

“My name is Jimmy” he extended his hand in the customary Earth greeting, Laruz gingerly returned the handshake and then held his closed fist to his chest in the D’Rek way.

Jimmy smiled and returned the salute.

“I am Sub Lieutenant Laruz, but my rank is unimportant here”

“yeah, I’m not one for ranks either. Everyone knows me as Jimmy.”

“Why did you assist me?” Laruz asked raising his voice slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“Moving me to a comfortable position after my torture, the Nivek Larvae, releasing me during your escape attempt” he couldn’t hide the confusion in his voice.

Jimmy paused for a second “We have a saying ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, despite that we were both in the shit and its safe to say that neither of us want to be here. It wouldn’t be right to leave you.”

“But I bested you in combat, surely you would have taken revenge and left me in the cell”

Jimmy roared with laughter “That scrap we had in the hanger? Did you fuck beat me! I let you win!”

He was still laughing as Laruz replayed the event in his head.

“The one-eyed blink!” Laruz declared.

“What?” Jimmy asked, still chuckling.

“You blinked at me with one eye before the fight, that was a signal.”

“It’s called a wink, and yes, I did it hoping I could tell you without words that the situation will go in our favour.”

“So, you allowed me to render you unconscious so you could enact your escape plan?” Laruz was starting to get an idea of just how ludicrous and illogical humans could be.

Jimmy laughed again, but not as hard. “No, whilst you do have a tasty right hook, I faked being knocked out so I could catch the guards without my restraints on and also memorise the route to the hanger”

“My attack had a flavour?” Laruz was utterly confused now.

“No, I mean it was good, strong. But fortunately, nowhere close to a one hit knockout”

Laruz struggled to process this information and stood quietly for a moment thinking.

“So, what is the next part of the plan?” Laruz finally asked

“This is the easy bit” Jimmy pointed at the weapons lockers “We get tooled up, head to the hanger, steal a shuttle and Foxtrot Oscar out of here” Jimmy strode over to the lockers and pulled out a large semi-automatic rifle “And if any Sundaarians try to stop us, we shoot them in their lizardy green faces.”


	5. Chapter 5

Jimmy and Laruz moved silently through the corridors, each one expertly covering the other. Laruz had quickly adapted to Jimmy’s method of moving, stacking up quietly on corners and giving each other light taps on the shoulder when ready to move. They moved with a slick precision that operators that had worked together for years only could. They both had figured that it was only a matter of time until they appeared on the surveillance scanners or they were reported missing. They approached the final corridor, a long pathway that led to the hanger along the ship’s bulkhead, lined with several escape pods. Jimmy had ruled out the pods as a means of escape, the frigate could easily destroy them as they launched, and the distress beacon that automatically activates could track them wherever they go. They were stacked up on the doorway that opened on to the final stretch to the hanger. Jimmy was in front and Laruz was knelt beside his leg covering the corridor behind them. Jimmy peeked around the doorway in the direction of the hanger, several heavily armed Sundaarians were running in their direction. “Shit, contact” Jimmy whispered to Laruz

“How many?”

“At least 10”

“What shall we do?”

“Prepare to move, MOVE!”

Jimmy sprinted out across the corridor and slid into the alcove of the first escape pod entrance. Laruz span around and began firing at the Sundaarians at the exact same moment. One Sundaarian fell whilst the rest began taking up positions and returning fire. As soon as Jimmy began firing Laruz ran over and slid in behind him. Three more Sundaarians fell and Jimmy could see that a several more were heading from the hanger to join their comrades to stop the escape. Jimmy left cover and Laruz moved into his place firing into the mass of reptilians at the end of the corridor. Jimmy fired as he moved, each shot hitting a Sundaarian in the head. Laruz saw Jimmy in that moment as the rest of the galaxy saw humans, a God of war, a deathworlder of legend. Jimmy was pure violence in human form, expertly controlled aggression concentrated in one direction and nothing survived its wake. The Sundaarian rifle was like an extension of Jimmy, even though it was slightly too big for human hands, he operated it as expertly as one who had used it their entire life. The accuracy of Jimmy’s shots forced the Sundaarians to retreat further up the corridor, he dipped back into cover, still firing. Laruz stepped out of the alcove and pushed forward. A sharp intense pain flooded Laruz, his own pale blue blood spattered his face as the shot smashed into his shoulder. The rifle he was holding clattered to the floor and he followed, his D’Rek physiology sending him into deep shock instantly. All sound quietened to a whisper in Laruz’s mind, “SHIT!” he heard Jimmy shout as if in the far distance. Jimmy peeled back into the alcove nearest to where Laruz fell “Larry, are you okay?” Laruz managed a groan and with a sheer force of will managed to move himself off his injured shoulder. Jimmy stared at the regrouping Sundaarians before deciding. “Larry we are getting out of here, NOW” Jimmy opened the escape pod door and fired three shots at the Sundaarians. Bounding towards his fallen friend Jimmy lifted the alien over his shoulder and ran towards the open escape pod. “The plan…no escape pods” Laruz groaned when he saw where Jimmy was running. “Plans change” he shouted in reply. Jimmy screamed in anger and stumbled; a shot tore through his calf muscle. He faltered but didn’t stop moving, with a strained growl he threw Laruz straight into the escape pod. Jimmy looked towards the hanger bay, the Sundaarians had taken advantage of the situation and were running towards them, fast. Jimmy looked at Laruz and smiled. “Good luck, Brother” before Laruz realised what was happening, Jimmy activated the escape pod.

The escape pod shot away from the ship, Laruz stared at the window where his friend had been standing a moment ago, but he was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

Xandris and Naxin sat back in their seats, exhausted. “That was quite an ordeal” Xandris broke the silence. Marshal Naxin stood up from the desk and headed for the door “I shall file my report immediately, these events have some diplomatic as well as military implications. I’ll be in touch soon” he gave a solemn salute to Laruz and left. “The Doctor has deemed you fit enough to be discharged from sickbay” Xandris stood, clearing the empty Graaz containers from the desk “You have been assigned senior officer quarters on the mess deck, you can rest there for the remainder of the journey back to D’Rea. I shall escort you”.

Xandris and Laruz walked towards the mess deck in silence. Xandris was concerned for her friend, his account of his time in captivity had certainly rattled her. She had seen for herself the ferocity with which humans fought, she had also heard rumours of folklore about individual humans pitting themselves against impossible odds or entering situations that would guarantee a violent death, just to save the life of another. Laruz’s mind was on the man who had risked his life to save him, _was he alive? What has become of him?_ Xandris was about to ask her companion a question when an alarm interrupted her. “Security teams report to hanger bay one. Condition red. All non-essential personnel evacuate hanger bay one” the ship-wide tannoy system blared out the warning on repeat. “I must go, are you able to locate your quarters by yourself?” Xandris asked over her shoulder as she began running towards the Hanger. “Yes, I shall see you soon” Laruz shouted after her.

“Team leader, report!” Xandris ran into the hanger and straight to the assembled security team. The D’Rek stood gleaming in their sleek power armour. Standing a full foot taller than Xandris in his armour, the team leader approached. “A Sundaarian shuttle on approach, flying erratically, it did not fire on us and it’s weapon systems appear to be offline” the armour gave his voice a monotonous robotic tone. Soon the shuttle loomed into view. The D’Rek ship’s tractor beams handling the docking sequence automatically. As soon as the shuttle touched down the security forces rushed to surround the hatches. A breaching charge was fitted and in a split second the main hatch exploded off the shuttle, skittering across the hanger floor. The first D’rek to enter the shuttle quickly scanned for threats as three other D’rek stormed in behind him. Once the shuttle was reported safe the team leader strode in and assessed the scene. The shuttles flight control console had several pieces of paper stuck to it over various instruments and switches, each piece of paper either had a sentence or a single word scrawled on it in Terran. Sat in the pilot’s seat was a human, bleeding heavily from several wounds all over its body. Its breathing was heavy, and it was clutching its chest beneath its left arm. The humans face was a mix of black and dark red, caked in grime and blood and covered in matted hair. The human turned to face the armoured D’Rek, his face twisted in pain at the movement “Is…my brother…okay? Did he…make it?”

“Foolish human! Your sibling does not reside on this ship” the mechanical tone did little to mask the contempt in the D’Rek’s voice. Hearing footsteps enter the shuttle the security team turned to see Chief Xandris on board. The sight of the human made her gasp. “Where’s…Larry?” the human rasped. Xandris knelt beside the injured pilot. It couldn’t be anyone else but him. “Laruz is safe, he is well, and he is resting on board this vessel. You have our gratitude and you are protected here. Thank you…Jimmy”. The human closed his eyes and smiled “Aces” he whispered and slipped into unconsciousness. Xandris turned to her security team “Get this man to sickbay now!”


	7. Chapter 7

Jimmy groggily opened his eyes, he felt like he had been landed on by an interplanetary freighter, twice. He slowly took in his surroundings. He was in a bed in a sickbay somewhere. A D’Rek guard stood by the door, thankfully not wearing its power armour. He didn’t remember much after he fired off Laruz’s escape pod. He remembered running down the corridor as fast as his injured leg would allow as soon as he hit the pod’s launch button, he also remembers being shot again soon after. He knew he had killed at least four Sundaarians before his memory failed him. As he was trying to piece together his escape from the Sundaarians the door to his room slid open. three D’Rek entered, one he vaguely recognised and two he didn’t recognise at all, their uniforms looked like they were very high ranks.

“Greetings Jimmy. My name is Xandris, I am chief of security on this ship. This is Marshal Naxin and Captain Traax, commander of this vessel.” Both officers gave him a polite salute.

“You have my gratitude. Sub Lieutenant Laruz was my subordinate, I am pleased he has returned safely” said Marshal Naxin.

“Due to your actions, Captain Traax has extended his personal protection to you. You are not a prisoner aboard this ship.” Xandris continued. Marshal Naxin bid farewell to Jimmy and left.

“Once you are fit and well, we will arrange to meet a Terran ship at a neutral location where you will be able to return home.” Captain Traax spoke with a voice that suggested an age far beyond a human’s lifespan. The door to the room slid open again and both D’Rek turned to see who it was. Jimmy smiled a huge smile of relief as Laruz stepped inside. “Larry!” Jimmy shouted with a cackle of laughter. Laruz cocked his head slightly at the strange name his friend had given him.

“Jimmy, have you forgotten? My name is Laruz”

“Larry is shorter”

“Incorrect, they have the same number of syllables”

“It’s shorter. Come here!”

Jimmy held out his hand and as Laruz gave it a firm grip Jimmy pulled him close and wrapped an arm around him “It’s good to see you brother!” Jimmy laughed. “I am pleased you are alive. I owe you my life…brother” Laruz smiled the biggest smile of his life. Xandris made a noise that broke up the reunion. “Jimmy, could you explain the small pieces of paper we found in the shuttle?” Xandris asked. “Ah, I had to learn how to fly that thing, so I wrote down what controls did what.” Jimmy replied, a flash of a memory returning to him. The three D’Rek looked at each other incredulously. “How did you ‘learn’ to fly a shuttle?”

“Trial and error”

Laruz’s blue colour drained to grey, that was their escape plan? ‘Trial and error’?

The Captains wrist pinged and a voice filled the room “Captain, a Sundaarian frigate has just appeared on long range scanners. It appears to be venting atmosphere and its main engine is…missing.”

“Oh yeah…” chuckled Jimmy “I also blew up their ship”


	8. Epilogue

_3 months later_

Laruz stood with his back to the wall, quietly surveying the people in conversation around the room. Back on D’Rea, peace talks had begun between the D’Rek and the humans and the Chambers of War had been repurposed to host the treaty negotiations. The war had begun based on the perceived violence and barbarism of humans. The rescue of a D’Rek by a human from a Sundaari frigate proved the compassion that humans were capable of for an individual in need, regardless of species. This was the foundation of peace between the humans and the D’Rek. The negotiations were going very well with an immediate end to hostilities and neither side declaring victory nor defeat already agreed by both sides. It was just a matter of negotiating trades, cultural exchanges and immigration rules. Laruz had been invited to attend the peace talks as an expert witness to human/D’Rek cooperation.

“Ah, Captain Laruz.” His attention snapped into focus on the human weaving through the diplomats towards him.

“Greetings Ambassador” Laruz replied.

“May I say, your escape from the Sundaarians was an incredible feat. You should feel proud.”

“Thank you, Ambassador. However, I cannot claim even half the credit for our escape” his eyes lowered. He had not seen nor heard from Jimmy since he transferred to the human ship after his recovery.

“You are too modest; our James assures me that escape would have been impossible had he not had you”

Laruz looked up at the ambassador, he had never heard Jimmy’s real name before. A thought made him smile _James…Jimmy ‘Its shorter!’_

“Do you know where he is now Ambassador?” Laruz asked.

“I’m afraid I cannot divulge that information, Captain. Operational secrecy. You understand.”

“I understand, Ambassador” Laruz replied, crestfallen.

The Ambassador leaned closer with a conspiring smile and whispered “However, I can neither confirm nor deny that he may or may not be on the Sundaarian homeworld, participating in what he would call ‘shooting people in the face’”

Laruz was still laughing as the Ambassador left and disappeared into the crowd of dignitaries.

 _Humans are amazing creatures_ Laruz mused to himself as he strolled out into the city, heading home.


End file.
